You just had your servers hacked into and all your database are belong to them. The black hats demand X number of BitCoins as ransom, but you cannot pay because it violates certain laws. So you hire an intermediary who pays for you, thereby avoiding the legal problem.
The killing example still bites you because the intent to kill, knowing & abetting, etc still matters, regardless of method to do so. It's not just the murder, but also everything around the murder that gets swept into it.
It seems to me data collection is illegal, so TSA doesnt do it directly -- the problem is that TSA intends to collect, and knowingly (and provably?) works around it, but is not being punished for it.
This is not really true. The TSA does not intend to collect, but to obtain an "ok person", "not-ok person" stamp. Then they decide with the info they gathered in the conversation with the person in question. They are not obtaining the data and have no intention of doing so. Yet a stamp like "criminal activity in the past" would be a questionable one. I don't know how they stamp the person.
Nevertheless I think they are doing a bad thing, because you can rest assured that this collected data won't get deleted, possibly even sold to 3rd parties.
This also seems like it pretty unambiguously still breaks the law. Has it been tested in court yet?
I wonder if it's kind of a "it's small fry, and these businesses are getting their data back, we'll turn our backs to it unless it's actual violent terrorists receiving ransom money" sort of thing.
> I wonder if it's kind of a "it's small fry, and these businesses are getting their data back, we'll turn our backs to it unless it's actual violent terrorists receiving ransom money" sort of thing.
1. It's difficult to believe that organized crime isn't involved in at least some ransomware schemes.
Strange, this is kinda what Huawei is being accused of in Iran. They used a proxy company to do business with a sanctioned country. Although Huawei seemed to directly control the company management, whereas Arete IR is technically an independent company hired as a contractor.
Super common for everything happening with Iran/Sudan/N. Korea. Shell companies inside of shell companies. Demands & markets don't stop just cuz of sanctions...
https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/4/21353842/garmin-ransomware...